Screen Door Kitchen — Restaurant in Dayton

Coming back to my hometown to visit is always a treat for me, and doing a review for a new business in town is always an honor. After traveling the country the last 4 years doing reviews as a hobby/ business, I have a unique perspective because I have eaten the far most corners of this country and gotten to know the differences. This being said, I could immediately tell the owners are from up north, not from the south. Why? The potatoe salad and Coleslaw was a giveaway. I have some advice for the owners on how to thrive / maximize profits in this area. You can either reach out here or talk with my hostees Megan that evening, who i told my opinion of what would work best in this area. By the way, Megan did an excellent job not only in customer service but also to accommodating my every need for my dining experience. Her family actually grew up next to me on the mountain small world. She told me the history of the house and the little girl that still lives there to this day if you like ghost stories. 🤗🥰 I have tried to eat here in the past with another business, but I have a gluten allergy, and they had nothing I could eat. So I was excited to see a new high-end restaurant with such a rich history in this old house again.

Now, to my review of The Screen Door.

As I pulled into the gravel parking lot hearing the rocks softs in my tires, I could feel this old house calling me to visit just like when it was time to visit Granny's house. The big wrap around the porch and seating brought back many memories sitting and playing just like the old days growing up at Granny's house. I noticed the country style decor before opening the old house door. As I walked in, I could feel the relaxed atmosphere just like home feel. I was greeted with a smile by my hostess Megan, who sat me down at a table with a view of an old fireplace and other tables. I immediately noticed the artwork , hardware floors, and country style design was just perfect in the settings. As I go over the gluten-free menu, which Megan bought to me, I was surprised to see a large variety. Traveling all over the country, I don't see large many restaurants with a large variety. I settled on the Coleslaw, potatoe salad, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and grilled chicken.

The chicken was very moist and grilled to perfection just right. Not to much or to little. They had a homemade BBQ sauce that was nothing like I have tasted but good sweet and tasty.

The Broccoli was steamed and I had to add alittle ranch dressing because it reminded me of home. The Broccoli was not to firm or soft just perfect.

The mashed potatoes were just as good and real mashed potatoes not the instant stuff with just alittle salt / ingredients.

The Coleslaw was different with lemon and not sweet like someone in the south would make but more on the tart side. Personally not a fan.

The potatoe salad was very plain just mustard and maynaise, no sweet taste of sweet pickle or anything. Personally I am not a fan.

I was surprised with all the different gluten free options there was no dessert. ? There is a great bluebell icecream shop in town or flourless chocolate cake would have been a nice touch to finish or sherbet to clean the palette.

Overall, I loved the atmosphere, history, friendly staff, and most of the options I tried.

This restaurant is a great addition to the finer dining in the Dayton area.

I look forward to dining again...

This place has been on our “must try list” for quite a while now. We have 5 kids so “date nights” are far and few in between. So when my Uncle and his son came in to town from Maryland for a visit the suggestion of “The Screen Door” was brought up and decided upon with excitement. We decided to go on a Wednesday evening, a few days before they headed back home. 7pm was the agreed meeting time since I work until 5:30 pm during the week and closing time was listed on their website and front door as 9pm. We met in the parking lot, 5 of us, smiling hugging and laughing…ready for a pleasant last dinner together. We entered the Screen Door Restaurant to be greeted by…no one. We stood there for a few moments before a lady popped out from another room. I smiled and said hi, she didn’t even look at me. She headed to the menu stack and just asked “how many?” In an exasperated tone. Still smiling I said there were five of us. She grabbed the menus and and told us to follow, we did…a little put off. On the way to the table she felt the need to mention that their new holiday hours were only until 8pm, it was 7:20 by this time. The awkwardness was very much felt by all. If it had just been my husband and myself we probably would have just left then, but my uncles and cousin had driven an hour from Chattanooga to meet us so we stayed. Let me mention here, again, that after checking the website again, it still says open until 9pm…not 8pm. As does the main entrance sign on the door. There were other people eating as well in the same dining room we were sat in so that made things a little more comfortable.

Our server was fine, but still left us feeling very rushed. They were out of two appetizers on the menu which was kind of sad especially on a slower night. The food was decent, not great. I had the BBQ and my husband had the salmon. The BBQ was good but the fries were pretty much just over fried crisps minus the potato. He said the salmon was edible but nothing special about it. We got dessert. I had the Chocolate cake which was a chilled piece of chocolate cake that tasted like a piece you get out of a food stores refrigerated section, I only ate two bites and boxed the rest up. The menu has a lot of different items which was weird, kind of like an ihop menu ranging from shrimp to pasta to burgers to BBQ…no real palette direction. It looks so fancy from the outside but didn’t give that same vibe once inside. I expected a little bit of fine dining, not Ruth Chris but less Cracker Barrel. Over all it was a disappointment, which made me entirely sad with how long we’ve been wanting to eat here. We won’t be wasting our next date night here. I’ll be honest, the rude hostess in the beginning started the downfall of my opinion of this place and I probably would have been a little less harsh if it hadn’t started that way. Everything I said was 100% fact but I would have maybe chocked it up to a restaurant in the works or a bad night, but from the moment we walked in we did not feel welcome.

Again, the food was not terrible if you can’t get to Chattanooga or Cleveland for a night out but lower your expectations before you walk...

This was the first time my husband and I went to this restaurant. I called ahead and was told we were in for a treat and yes we were!!! We arrived and almost the entire staff was sitting outside by the back door. We went in and the young man was seating another party then started to seat us and said wait and he went to the back door and the staff came back in. We were seated and ordered an appetizer and our entree . We never got our appetizer and the waitress, Paige, said she would bring it anyway and take it off the bill, which we did appreciate. I asked for some buttered toast or just some bread and butter with my entree and she said she would make me some sourdough bread toast which also never came until I asked another waiter and when he brought it out it was just plain toast no butter. When ordering I asked for a piece of pie to go and she said I’ll check and see if we have any. She never got back to me She only asked one time Iif we needed any drink refills but by that time we were done. We asked for two to -go boxes and 10 minutes went by and no Paige and no boxes so I got up walker around looking for anybody and saw the to-go boxes in the staff room where they prepare drinks and got them myself. 10 minutes later she finally strolls by and asked if we needed dessert and I reminded her of the pie and she left again and said no they did not have any. We then asked for the bill, paid and left. We noticed the young waiter servicing the table next to us was extremely attentive and asked that party several time if they needed drink refills etc.. When we left once again almost the entire staff was out back. Now I realize this is a young group but good service is good service and that along with good food makes our hard earned money we spent so much more worthwhile. The food was very good but the staff is not well organized or chaparoned very well. The atmosphere minus the old house acoustics was lovely and we enjoyed to old music. One side note, ask any Italian or most pasta eaters, you have to have bread with pasta!! We most likely will give it another try but really hope the staff learns their jobs better and one last thing, do not call your elders , honey, darling . How about the old fashioned yes sir and ma’am out...